The Crash That Wasn't

Let's face it. As far as the global economy goes, we were headed for a fall anyway. When the markets closed on Sept. 10, the Japanese economy was in the process of doing the seemingly impossible  that is, getting worse. Europe was softening, and in the United States ... well, the nasty hangover from the Age of Irrational Exuberance was just kicking in.

And then we had, as Barton Biggs of Morgan Stanley calls it, "a bolt from the blue." A strike right at the heart of world capitalism. And it was a pretty good shot:...